The Museums Collection at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Apr 01 2008
The Museum of Modern Art reopened in its new home in midtown Manhattan on November 20, 2004, unveiling the reinstallation of its preeminent collection of modern and contemporary art in an elegant building designed to provide the ideal environment for the viewing of art. The reopening commemorates the Museum’s 75th anniversary and heralds the completion of the most extensive rebuilding and renovation project in MoMA’s history. Designed by architect Yoshio Taniguchi, the new Museum integrates new construction and renovation to extend and enhance the presentation of the Museum’s dynamic and evolving collection as well as its temporary exhibitions. Taniguchi worked closely with the Museum’s staff over the course of the project to develop a series of reconceived, architecturally distinctive galleries and public spaces that allow MoMA to tell the story of modern and contemporary art in an exciting new context. The new Museum nearly doubles the capacity of the former building, with galleries clustered around a soaring 110-foot-tall (10.2 metres) atrium that diffuses natural light throughout the building. Among the notable features of the new design are monumental windows and curtain walls throughout the Museum that afford views of The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the city beyond. The newly renovated and expanded Museum of Modern Art resents the Museum’s renowned collection of painting and sculpture in a completely new reinstallation that dynamically illustrates the movements, artists, and influences that have shaped modern and contemporary art over the last 125 years. Works from the collection are exhibited on three floors of expansive galleries, including the Museum’s first galleries devoted exclusively to contemporary art. Though works from the collection are exhibited in an essentially chronological sequence, the galleries’ distinctive design allows that progression to be non-linear, thus emphasizing how artists, movements, and styles coincided, competed with each other, and broke new ground in the evolution of modern art. Each gallery is a cohesive presentation relating an episode in the history of modern art; while each individual gallery constitutes an integral part of the larger narrative, it can also stand alone as a self-contained chapter within that story. The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Painting and Sculpture Galleries comprise over 40,000 square feet of gallery space on the fifth and fourth floors of the Museum, where works from the collection span the late nineteenth century through the late 1960s. The two floors are connected by an elegantly designed cantilevered stairwell in which several works from the collection are installed, among them Henri Matisse’s The Dance (1909) and Constantin Brancusi’s Fish (1930). A unique gallery in itself, the stairwell provides a view of the Museum’s new atrium and offers an uninterrupted path through the installation. Masterworks from the collection are joined on all three floors by approximately 30 new acquisitions that will be exhibited at MoMA for the first time. On the second floor, the Contemporary Galleries, which feature 22-foot-high ceilings and 15,000 square feet of column-free space, are dedicated to works of art created between approximately 1970 and 2004. These galleries adjoin the new 5,000-square-foot Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, in which several large-scale works from the painting and sculpture collection are installed, among them Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (1963-69) and Claude Monet’s Water Lilies (c. 1920). Additional works from the painting and sculpture collection are displayed in other public spaces of the Museum. Image Captions: Image 1: The Museum of Modern Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Entrance at 53rd Street. © 2007 Timothy Hursley Image 2: The Museum of Modern Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Fourth and Fifth Floor Stairwell showing Henri Matisse’s Dance (I) (1909) and The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium. © 2007 Timothy Hursley. Henri MatisseDance (I), 1909Oil on canvas 8' 6 1/2" x 12' 9 1/2" (259.7 x 390.1 cm) Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.© 2007 Succession H. Matisse, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Image 3: The Museum of Modern Art designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Painting and Sculpture Galleries. 5th Floor Installation View. © 2007 Timothy Hursley. Image 4: Exterior view of the David and Peggy Rockefeller Building from West 54th Street, The Museum of Modern Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Photo © 2007 Timothy Hursley  |
